Anaïs Martane was born in 1979. Thirteen years ago she boldly decided to study Chinese in senior high school, in Nice. Later graduating from Langues’O, China brought to her the language of photography and she had her first exhibition Chine, tu bouges? in 2001 after a six month stint at Beijing Normal University. She has been a resident in Beijing for seven years, and she has no plans to leave. Since 2002 she has been involved as a photographer and scout for the young photo agency Traffic d'Images, and her work has been varied: French and International press, corporate, still photographer and accompanying Chinese photographers at Arles…

Later, she started a project on the traces of Jews in China - Harbin, Shanghai and Kaifeng using both the mediums of photography and video documentary. This culminated in an exhibition on the subject of Jews living in Shanghai during WWII, which was shown in La Maison de la Chine during the winter of 2005-2006. Rosen Films, a French film production company, supported this work.

Anaïs began to focus on portraiture in 2004 and his principally worked in this form ever since. The majority of her press photography has been for TIME magazine as well as Elle, Libération, Telerama, Le Monde. Chinese Portraits is her first book, published in both French and English and distributed worldwide. Chinese and Jews will follow. In April 2009, Portraits of China will be exhibited as part of the Croisements Festival in Beijing (Pékin Fine Arts) and Shanghai (ifa gallery).